Health Research

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Health Research
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What is the placebo effect?

• An expectation of an effect gives that effect.

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What can increase the placebo effect?

• Big pills - not little ones
• Colored pills - not white tablets
• Capsules - not tablets
• Two doses - not one
• Injection - not pill
• Surgery - not injection

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Psychological treatments subject to the placebo
effect.

• Counseling
• Hypnosis
• Biofeedback
• Relaxation training
• Massage
• Stress pain management techniques

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What can increase the placebo effect?

• Both patient and physician expectations

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How effective is the placebo effect?

• It can potentially
• Reduce insomnia
• Decrease low back pain
• Lower high blood pressure
• Decrease burn pain
• Relieve knee pain with sham (false) surgery

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How can we separate the placebo effect from the
real treatment effect?

• Double-blind design.

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Research Methods

• Correlation studies
• Cross-Sectional studies
• Longitudinal studies
• Experimental designs
• Observational designs

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Correlation studies

• Show the degree of relationship between two
  factors
• Cannot indicate cause and effect

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Cross-Sectional VS Longitudinal studies

• Cross-sectional studies
• Compare two or more separate groups
• Faster
• One point in time
• Longitudinal studies
• Compares one group over time
• Longer
• Follow participants over years

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Experimental study

• Can determine cause
• At least two groups
• Experimental group
• Control group
• Variables
• Independent variable
• Dependent variable

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Observational studies

• Does not manipulate variables
• Prospective
• Follow disease-free population for years to see
  what happens
• Retrospective
• Opposite approach
• Find population with disease and look backward
• After the fact
• Comparison group is not a control group
• No random assignment
• May differ on other factors

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Observational studies

• Retrospective (Cont.)
• Two groups
• One with subject variable
• (e.g Overweight)
• One without subject variable
• (e.g Not overweight)
• Measure dependent variable (eg. Smoking)
• Looks for risk factors in a disease
• Factors increasing chance of the disease
• Demographic
• Behavioral

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The gold standard of scientific research

• Randomized
• Placebo-controlled
• Double-blind
• Used for
• Drug studies
• Effectiveness of psychological and educational
  interventions

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Psychometrics (psychological tests) in research

• Reliability
• Consistent results
• Test-retest
• Inter-rater (Two or more raters same results)
• Validity
• Measures what it is designed to measure
• Criterion validity
• Predictive validity

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